COLOMBIAN ARMY CHIEF ASSUMES PRESIDENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91T01172R000200310022-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2004
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: June 14, 1953
• Content Type: SUMMARY

Approvh For Rq.. 2004/07/09 : CIA-RDP91 T01172R0t'd' 00310022-3
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OCI cap 4477 CENTAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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`"~.._ ' . /i,. 0 14 flune 1953
COLOMBIAN AAA SUMES PRESIDENCY
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, Commanding General of the Armed
Forces, assumed the Presidency of Colombia at 10 p.m. on
13 June. Just as Rojas Pinilla was about to be fired by
Laureano Gomez, who had suddenly come out of a twenty month
retirement because of his health and reassumed the Presidency,
the army carried out a bloodless coup.
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The army coup breaks a long tradition of non-intervention
by the Colombian military in politics. Rojas Pinilla had for
some time been at odds with the Gomez clique over military policy
and had been resisting its efforts to remove him. Meanwhile,
fellow officers were urging Rojas Pinilla to take over and
were making plans for the successful coup.
The new President appears to have the backing of the army,
the police, and all elements of the Conservative Party save
the die-hard clique of ousted President Gomez. In a radio
address to the nation, Rojas Pinilla stated that the army would
be in charge until a new government was organized. He promised
that free elections would be held and that Colombia would
maintain its international obligations.
He has appointed an all-Conservative cabinet of three
military men and ten civilians, most of whom appear to be
supporters of ex-President Ospina Perez, leader of the moderate
faction of the Conservative Party.
The ousted Gomez clique, which was the dominant faction
in the Colombian government up to the time of the coup, rep-
resented the extreme right wing of the Conservative Party
and was hardly representative of the Colombian people.
Rojas Pinilla's assumption of the Presidency appears to
make Colombia's prospects for settling its guerrilla problem,
ending its state-of-siege, and returning to political normalcy
brighter than at any time during the past three and one-half
years.
Rojas Pinilla, formerly Colombia's 'representative on the
Inter-American Defense Board in Washington, and most of the
members of his new cabinet have well known pro-United States
sympathies. This government can be expected to maintain the
Colombian Battalion in Korea..
Approved For Release 2004/67W. 1015T01172R000200310022-3